Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO5000 “Nori Wasabi Snacks” Cedar Park, 2019
こんばんは。How’s it going?
When I was in college, I had a friend from Japan who brought back some amazing wasabi-flavored nori snacks. She said they were hard to find. Since then, I’ve been keeping my eye out for them and I finally found some! I’ve seen the nori-chips around but not with wasabi, so when I spotted these at the market in California I bought them immediately. I love them! And happily, Mariko and Bay both think they are too salty, and Koa is away for the weekend, so I have the whole bag to myself!
It’s the small things in life that bring the most joy… 😆
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO1250 “Black Ink Water” Cedar Park, 2019
Tonight I filled my Ohuhu waterbrush with a mix of diluted ink, first with Noodler’s Bulletproof Black. I added just a few drops and painted the background trees. I had to get the paper really wet, and I am not very fond of the way the ink granulated on the watercolor paper. Next, I refilled the brush with water and 10 drops of Kuretake Zig Cartoonist Ink and painted the items in the foreground. I am really pleased with the effect! It reminds me of Chinese ink paintings a bit, since I guess the medium is essentially the same.
It’s fun to “doodle” using the waterbrush and diluted ink. I’ll do more for sure in the future!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO5000 “Garlic Steak Donburi” Cedar Park, 2019
こんばんは。How’s it going? Tonight, Mariko made a steak donburi with a sweet sauce and toasted garlic. It tasted as good as it looked. 😄 Over vacation, we ate a lot of food at each meal, so it was nice to enjoy a smaller portion.
And Lani was excited at the possibility of getting some some home-cooked scraps:
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO5000 “Hungry Dog” Cedar Park, 2019
We’re back home in Texas after a wonderful holiday vacation in California. While I enjoyed myself quite a bit, I let my daily habits fall by the wayside, but that’s okay. I was on vacation after all. Nothing to beat myself up over.
While I did post on my blog, play some ukulele (my dad has a cool Kamaka ukulele), exercise/stretch, and take a daily photo, I didn’t study my Japanese vocabulary nor do a daily drawing. And of course, I didn’t do a daily decluttering. But now that I’m back home, I’ll pick those back up. It’s a new year which is kind of cool. No new year’s resolutions for me. I’m just going to continue what I’m doing. Little by little, every day, ought to be enough. 😊
This afternoon we went to the Redondo Beach Pier to walk around, have some snacks, and enjoy the outdoors. Even though it was chilly out, the kids got ice cream and funnel cakes, and Mariko and I enjoyed some oysters on the half-shell. As the sun went down, we got sat down for a cocktail and then took photos of the sunset. It was a good day! Please enjoy the photos.
またね～
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5.6, 1/100 sec, ISO400 “Sunset Silhouette” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO640 “Oysters” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/90 sec, ISO3200 “Seafood Snacks” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO400 “All Signs” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec, ISO400 “Tony’s” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/160 sec, ISO200 “The Horseshoe” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/16, 1/220 sec, ISO200 “Black and White Pacific” Redondo Beach, 2019Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/16, 1/100 sec, ISO1250 “Bye-bye Sun” Redondo Beach, 2019
Today we took a day-trip up to the town of Ojai, California. It was about a two-hour drive, and when we arrived it was time for lunch so we headed straight for our first destination, The Nest. The food was a delicious mix of vegan and non-vegan foods, and the coffee was also yummy. We shared cauliflower tacos, brisket sandwiches, and sangria.
After lunch, we visited The Ojai Olive Oil Company, where we took a short tour and learned a lot about their olive oil operation, and olive oil in general. Very enlightening and educational! I didn’t know that the time from picking the olives to producing the actual oil happens within the span of only a few hours to retain the most flavor.
Next we made a stop at Topa Mountain Winery for a wine tasting, and then it was onto a really cool bookstore, Bart’s Books. What’s special about Bart’s is that it is the largest independently owned outdoor bookstore in the U.S.! There are so many cool books to browse through, and I found myself exploring a lot of the books from the early 1900s. How cool to read from a book that is over 100 years old!
